The American legal system relies heavily on both written laws and judicial opinions that apply these laws to particular legal disputes. Because legislatures change laws and new judicial opinions affect how laws are interpreted and applied, judges and lawyers within our legal system must continually research these laws and opinions to effectively advise their clients.
To facilitate this research, Thomson Legal & Regulatory, Inc. of St. Paul, Minn. offers a system of databases and research tools, known as Westlaw®, which provides online access to judicial opinions, statutes, administrative regulations, legal articles, and news from all over the world. The Westlaw system empowers users to search over 100 million documents organized in over 15,000 databases.
One problem recognized by the present inventors is that the vast number of databases in the Westlaw system can be difficult for some users to access effectively. For example, users unfamiliar with the array of database options may run “good” searches against a “bad” set of databases or against an overly broad set of databases. Selection of a bad set of databases will yield very few, if any, relevant documents. And, those documents that are found are likely to be of little value to the user, potentially leading him to incorrectly conclude that the system lacks what he needs. Likewise, selection of an overly broad set of databases can also lead to poor outcomes, since the search results will likely leave the user the task of sifting through a multitude of lesser relevant documents to find the few highly desirable ones. Overly broad searches, moreover, can be computationally and financially expensive to systems, such as Westlaw, that have finite computing resources to serve the thousands of researchers they attract daily.
To address this problem, the Westlaw system includes two separate features: a find-a-database assistant (or wizard), and a hierarchical, online directory (or outline) of its 15,000-plus databases. The find-a-database wizard, which replaced a searchable listing of crude database profiles known as IDEN (short for identify), allows users to run a query against a set of database profiles and then to identify one or more of the found databases for use in a subsequent search. The separate online directory helps users find specific databases by presenting database titles and descriptions as an interlinked hierarchy of categories, subcategories, sub-subcategories, and so forth. The user can browse or navigate through the hierarchy by pointing to and clicking on specific categories and subcategories to reveal underlying subcategories and any associated database listings. The user can in turn review these listings and identify one or more databases for a subsequent search.
Unfortunately, neither the wizard nor the directory has proven as effective as desired in helping users target the right databases. The wizard uses conventional natural language search technology, and often lists many more databases than are necessary to meet the actual needs of its users. The size and complexity of the directory make it cumbersome and time-consuming to browse. Furthermore, because systems, such as Westlaw, are expanding daily with the addition of new databases, the efficacies of the current wizard and directory are diminishing as the problem of targeting the right databases is worsening.
Accordingly, the present inventors have recognized a need to improve how users search for documents in legal-research systems, such as Westlaw, as well as other information retrieval systems that employ large collections of databases.